When I read this item from this morning's paper, I thought, "what a relief!" All of that hand-wringing about economic development, and for what? It turns out that this is a *great* place for starting a business:

Local startup support groups Entrepreneurial Lifelines and Helping Entrepreneur's Learn From Peers are joining with M2 Technology to host a panel posing the question, "Is Pittsburgh the greatest entrepreneurial center in the world?"

The discussion,which runs from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Thursday at the Engineers Society of Western Pennsylvania, Downtown, will be moderated by E-Lifelines founder Karl Schieneman. Cost is $25 per person ($15 for students), and includes lunch. For more information, visit www.eswp.com/eswp/program.htm, or call 412-261-0710.

But that description is a little misleading (even if it comes from the event's press release). Reality is more sobering. The actual program is titled, "Why Pittsburgh was (and can still be) the Greatest Entrepreneurial Center in the World."

In other words, we were great once; we're hopeful now. You, too, can be George Westinghouse (at least, you can if you invent and patent most of the infrastructure of the industrial revolution in America), or if not, and if you have a neat idea and superlative timing, then you can be Glen Meakem. And there's nothing wrong with that.